So you wanna be a Varangian?

The bodyguard of the Byzantine Emperor, ready to die for his master, but also spend hours of boredom carving graffiti during a solemn mass in Hagia Sophia?

It is an arduous and dangerous work, but it also brings wealth and fame.

A thread 🧵 Joining the Varangian Guard meant pledging loyalty to the Emperor of the #Romans - a rare honour for a foreigner, especially one from the north.

To be a Varangian, you must be from the North, far beyond the imperial territory. Depending on the time, your ethnicity mattered. /1

The course of history is not decided by one single event, but pivotal moments do happen, and they have a far-reaching impact

One such event is the Battle of Actium, where Octavian's naval forces defeated the combined fleet of Mark Antony and Cleopatra, #OTD, in 31 BC

A thread🧵 The Battle of Actium was the culmination of a decade-long rivalry between two most powerful men in Late Republican Rome:

Octavian, Julius Caesar's adoptive son, and Mark Antony, Caesar's ally and favorite general

The two initially worked together to avenge Caesar's murder... /1

On August 2, 216 BC, the largest Roman army ever assembled gathered near the ancient town of Cannae. Rome was determined to teach the Punic upstart a lesson.

Instead, at Cannae, #Hannibal Barca painted the battlefield red with Roman blood.

A thread🧵 By the early second century BC, Roman expansion in the Western Mediterranean encountered an obstacle - the maritime power of #Carthage. Romans, however, managed not only to build the fleet (in a remarkably short time).

They also defeated Carthage, taking control of the seas. /1

He was the Roman emperor who killed his brother. He spent more time in a military camp than in the capital. And he died en route to Persia, where he planned to gain glory for Rome and himself.

He was Caracalla. But not one from #Gladiator2. He was a soldier-emperor.

A thread🧵

Caracalla was one of the two sons of Septimius Severus, a highly competent Roman emperor, who emerged as the winner of the bloody civil war following Commodus’ death

“Caracalla” was a nickname derived from the Gallic hooded tunic that he habitually wore and made fashionable. /1

So you want to be a Roman legionary? A highly disciplined, trained, and organized member of the famed Roman legion. One of the most renowned ancient militaries.

It is an arduous path, carrying many dangers, but also great benefits. So let's enroll, shall we?

A thread🧵 Before joining the legion, the recruit underwent a rigorous, hard-core training. While the Roman legion was a massive unit - comprising around 5,000 men, the legion was as strong as its smallest part - a legionary. /1

If you visit the Venetian Arsenal, you can see an imposing statue of a lion.

The lion, made of white marble, stands some 3 m high. But this statue has a fascinating history and an even more fascinating secret

To start with, The Lion of Piraeus comes from Greece...

A thread 🧵 The ancient Lion of Piraeus, was originally sculpted ca. 360 BC. It was located in the Athens port city of Piraeus, until 1687, when it was brought to Venice.

However, if you look carefully, you can see another layer, giving insight into always wonderful #Byzantine Empire /1

#OTD In 1204, Constantinople, the capital of the Roman Empire, fell to the Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade.

The Empire never recovered from such a blow.

But how did it come to this? What led to this unspeakable betrayal.

A thread 🧵 Following the chain of disasters at the end of the 11th century, the emperors of the Komnenian dynasty managed to restore the #RomanEmpire fortunes. It was not an easy task. To expel the Seljuks from Anatolia, emperor Alexios I had to ask for help from the West... /1

As a huge #Tolkien fan, I am amazed at how many artists brought his Middle Earth to life.

Alan Lee, Ted Nasmith, Marc Simonetti, and even the Queen of Denmark!

But my favourite is Denis Gordeev, a Russian who made Tolkien's characters and world truly medieval (and real). Just look at the vibrant world and colourful costumes of the Gordeev medieval #LOTR characters. We should remember the Middle Ages were a far cry from Holywood's drab and grey world.

Filled with colours, like in this scene of Aragorn's coronation. A crown for the king! /1

In 361 AD, following the sudden death of Constantius II, Julian became the sole emperor. Two years later, #OTD, Julian invaded the Sassanid Empire.

Instead of military glory, Julian got a tomb.

But why Julian invaded Persia at the first place?

A thread🧵 On March 5, 363 AD, a large Roman army, numbering around 60,000, left Antioch. This was the beginning of Julian's Persian campaign.

Sassanian Persia was Rome's main rival. The victory over ancient nemesis would bring Julian much-needed military triumph... /1

#OTD, 293 AD, emperors Diocletian and Maximian appointed their fellow generals Constantius Chlorus and Galerius as co-emperors.

So began the #Tetrarchy, a governing system of four rulers who all shared equal power over the Roman Empire.

A short-lived experiment.

A thread 🧵 The so-called Crisis of the Third Century paralysed the Roman Empire. As the internal and external pressure mounted, no less than 24 (!) emperors exchanged at the throne, while at least 60 (!) men tried to claim it

Those who managed to take the throne rarely kept it for long. /1

To tame a hopelessly disorganised Roman calendar, Julius Caesar added months, took them away, and, importantly, by adapting the Egyptian solar calendar, invented the #LeapYear.

He also caused the longest year in history.

And in the end, it changed our world.

A thread 🧵 By the first century BC, the Roman farmers were in utter confusion. The annual harvest celebrations, which happened in the Summer, kept arriving in the middle of Spring, many months before the harvest...

The problem was not the change in the climate but the calendar... /1

“Thalatta! Thalatta!” — “The sea. The sea!”

A surreal moment when The Ten Thousand - Greek mercenaries - reached the Black Sea coast after their long voyage to the heart of the Persian Empire and back

The extraordinary Odyssey is recorded in Xenophon's "Anabasis"

The thread 🧵 In 401 BC, the Achaemenid or the Persian Empire was the largest and richest empire in the world.

Its ruler was the King of Kings, Artaxerxes II. However, his brother Cyrus the Younger desired the throne for himself.

To do that, he needed an army... /1

#OTD, in 532, Constantinople is burning.

The Senate House and Hagia Sophia are caught in an inferno caused by the angry mob. To stop the Nika Riots, emperor Justinian ordered the troops from Thrace to march on the capital.

But how did it come to this?

#NikaRiots, a thread 🧵 After becoming the emperor, Justinian still faced the opposition. After all, his uncle Justin, was not a first choice of emperor for the aristocratic elite, who preferred a non-military choice. Justin was a man of low origin, a peasant who achieved high rank in the military. /1

#OTD, in 537, emperor Justinian consecrated Hagia Sophia in Constantinople

Upon entering his newly restored church, he shouted, “Solomon, I have outdone thee!”

Hagia Sophia would become the greatest church in the world. It is still there, standing the test of time!

A thread 🧵 #HagiaSophia, one of the world's most magnificent buildings, has a tumultuous past.

A church, then a mosque, it became a museum in the 1930s, only to be reconverted back to the mosque a few years ago... but did you know that Justinian's building is the third Hagia Sophia? /1

Before leaving to see @NapoleonMovie, and while I am still in good spirits, I want to use this opportunity to tell you about one of Napoleon's lesser-known creations.

And probably one of the most positive ones.

The Illyrian Provinces - a thread 🧵 The story of the Illyrian Provinces begins in 1809. the year in which Napoleon's Grande Armée defeated the Austrians at Wagram.

Among the territories Austria had to cede to #Napoleon at the Treaty of Schönbrunn was the northern Adriatic coastline and its hinterland /1

#OTD, 565 AD, emperor Justinian I died. He was 82

During his long reign, Justinian presided over an ambitious building programme and revised #Roman Law with the Justinian Code.

His most famous and most controversial achievement, however, was Justinianic Reconquest - a thread 🧵 Since the mid-fifth century AD, and the fall of Rome, the emperors in Constantinople dreamed of the reconquest of the former imperial territories lost to the barbarian kings.

However, the constant threat from Sassanids in the East tied down most of the troops. /1

#OTD in 960 AD, a brilliant Roman general turned a successful Muslim raid into a shattering defeat, bringing an end to a powerful emirate and paving the way for the imperial reconquest in the East

A battle that turned the tide of war - the Battle of Andrassos, a thread 🧵 By the mid-10th century, the Abbasid Caliphate, the main rival of the #RomanEmpire in the East, lost most of its power. Yet, the situation for the Romans did not improve, as several smaller but mighty rulers took the place of the caliph, increasingly isolated in Baghdad. /1

The medieval Roman Empire, better known as the Byzantine Empire, is well known for its many civil wars, led during its long #history.

But few conflicts were as damaging as the Byzantine civil war of 1341–47.

The war that broke the Empire. A thread. 🧵 The #Byzantine civil war of 1341–47, sometimes referred to as the Second Palaiologan Civil War was a conflict that broke out following the death of Andronikos III Palaiologos. Both sides fought over the guardianship of the emperor's nine-year-old son and heir, John V. /1

#OTD, in 475, Romulus Augustulus became the last emperor of the Western Roman Empire.

Not really. There was another. Someone who, unlike Romulus, had full recognition of the emperor in Constantinople. His name was Julius Nepos.

The last emperor of the Roman West - a thread 🧵 The latter half of the fifth century was chaotic for the Romans in the West. Emperor Majorian's failure to restore stability over the imperial territory led to his death and the end of all hopes to save the #Roman West from impending collapse. /1

“We did not know where we were, on heaven or on earth.”

Russian Ambassadors (987), in a report to Prince Vladimir of Kiev.

One of the most fascinating tales of the early Middle Ages, which changed the course of #history - a thread🧵 Vladimir, Prince of Kiev, was a sort of a pagan playboy with a harem of eight hundred. Ruthless and powerful, Vladimir subjugated much of the region known as Rus. Despite an increase of #Christianity among his subjects, he has erected many statues of his people’s ancient gods. /1

Was not expecting that a post on less known #Byzantine emperor would turn out to be so popular, so here is a thread about the life and reign of this fascinating ruler...as he deserves it.

Who was Theophilos, the last iconoclast?

A thread 🧵 Theophilos’ father was Michael II, a soldier from Amorium in Phrygia, western Anatolia, nowadays #Turkey.

Michael and his colleague, Leo V "the Armenian," had jointly overthrown the emperor Michael I Rangabe, with Leo becoming the new Byzantine emperor. /1